The U.S. Navy will rely heavily on air components — including those of the Air Force — in the Air-Sea Battle (ASB) construct, according to Adm. Jonathan Greenert, chief of naval operations (CNO).
HOUSTON — International Space Station astronauts Don Pettit of NASA and Andre Kuipers of the European Space Agency have replaced a UHF communications unit aboard the station that will be required for the upcoming berthing of the unpiloted SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule. The Dragon is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., atop a Falcon 9 rocket on May 19 at 4:55 a.m. EDT, initiating the first U.S. commercial resupply mission to the orbiting science lab.
ARMY General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., Poway, Calif., was awarded a $141,832,994 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract. The award will provide for the services in support of the MQ-1C Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft systems. The work will be performed in Poway, with an estimated completion date of May 7, 2013. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-12-C-0075).
GENEVA — The U.K. will spend around £160 billion ($260 billion) on defense equipment and services in the next decade, which includes more than £4 billion set aside as a “contingency reserve,” Defense Secretary Philip Hammond told Parliament May 14.
Rockwell Collins France is demonstrating a radar-based helicopter obstacle detection system to the French army as it talks to manufacturers about a related system to warn of rotor strikes when landing in confined spaces. Both systems use the same 13-ghz, Ku-band electronically scanned radar technology developed by the company’s French operation.
NEW FALCON: NASA has modified its NASA Launch Services (NLS) II contract with SpaceX to add an additional configuration of the company’s Falcon 9 rocket to its fleet. The SpaceX Falcon 9 v1.1 “will be available to the agency’s Launch Services Program to use for future missions in accordancea with the on-ramp provision of NLS II,” NASA says in an announcement.
DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY Telephonics Corp., Farmingdale, N.Y., was awarded a firm-fixed-price, sole-source contract with a maximum $47,099,407 for interface control units and equipment. There are no other locations of performance. Using service is Army. Type of appropriation is Army Working Capital Funds. There was one proposal with one response. The date of performance completion is May 6, 2017. The Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (SPRRA1-12-D-0104).
SAN DIEGO — The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom is plagued by extensive corrosion and manufacturing issues more recent and serious than anything the Pentagon or prime contractor Lockheed Martin has publicly acknowledged thus far. This is based on a guided tour of the ship in dry dock, as well as sources intimately familiar with Freedom’s design, repairs and operations, U.S. Navy documents and defense analysts.
SINGAPORE — Belgium will be able to take advantage of some of Luxembourg’s allocation in the U.S. military’s Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) constellation.
NEW DELHI — India’s efforts to develop heavier rockets received a boost with a recent test of its indigenously built, super-cooled cryogenic engine, which will be used to place a communications satellite into geosynchronous orbit later this year. The cryogenic engine is slated to fly on the country’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) as early as September, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chief K. Radhakrishnan says. India started developing cryogenic rocket engine technology in 1993.
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Singapore – The Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) constellation will have 10 satellites and the U.S. foresees having more nations join the program, a senior U.S. Air Force official says. “Ten satellites is the official program level,” David Steare, lead at the U.S. Air Force’s milsatcom international engagement, space and cyberspace division, told delegates at the MilSatCom Asia conference in Singapore. He says this is the first time the total number of satellites planned for the program has been publicly disclosed.
Pakistan on May 10 successfully test-fired a short-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile, the country’s military says. The Hatf-III, known as Ghaznavi, has a range of up to 290 km (180 mi.) and can also carry conventional warheads. The test-fire “was conducted at the conclusion of the annual field training exercise of Army Strategic Force Command,” Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) department says.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project Agency is seeking bids to provide four small satellites to demonstrate its fractionated spacecraft architecture in orbit.
New Delhi – India has approved the purchase of 145 ultralight M777 howitzers from the U.S., the first major artillery buy since it inducted howitzer guns from Switzerland-based AB Bofors in 1987. “The purchase of the 155 mm lightweight towed howitzers with Laser Inertial Artillery Pointing Systems [Linaps] will be made through the U.S. government’s foreign military sales program,” a senior defense ministry official says. The M777 is manufactured by BAE Systems ’ Global Combat Systems division.
VIDEO RADAR: A synthetic-aperture radar small enough to fit inside an electro-optical/infrared sensor ball and which can provide high-resolution video in all weather – that’s the goal of a new U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program. The Video Synthetic-Aperture Radar (ViSAR) program plans to develop an extremely high-frequency radar that will allow a gunship to target moving people and vehicles through clouds and other obscurants that degrade infrared.
The U.S. Army plans to award Boeing a contract to support development of a package of upgrades to its CH-47 Chinook heavy-lift helicopters. The CH-47 Block II Aircraft Component Improvement Program (ACIP) will integrate three separate developments : the Advanced Concept Rotor Blade (ACRB), active parallel actuator system and improved-performance (IP) engine.
R&D organization Battelle has completed preliminary design of an improved icing spray system to replace equipment now used by the U.S. Army to perform icing certification on military and civil helicopters and smaller fixed-wing aircraft.
